Visit to New York
by demgrl1991
Summary: Eric and Donna visit Jackie in her New York apartment. Happens before, and is compatable with, my Jackie/ Hyde trilogy. I do not own That 70s Show


Background: The year is 1985. Jackie lives in New York and is a cast member of 'Saturday Night Live', and has a four year-old-daughter named Beth.

***********************************Jackie********************************

"Donna! Great to see you! Welcome to my home, uh, cheap apartment. Hey dork, long time no see, missed ya."

Eric grinned. "Hey there yourself, devil."

Donna rolled her eyes at the pair of them. They'd been close friends and confidantes ever since they started corresponding while Eric was in Africa, when, here Donna cringed, the rest of them had abandoned them both. Which may have been why Jackie got up and moved half way across the country… At any rate, they were incredibly close, yet Eric and Jackie still felt the need to keep up the façade that they hated each other. It was quite ridiculous and juvenile.

But none of that really mattered when you were seeing your best friend for the first time in five months. Donna let out a thoroughly un-Donna like squeal, and ran through the door and hugged Jackie. God, she'd missed this girl. She almost wished Jackie had never left Point Place, though she knew that was selfish of her, because it was in leaving that Jackie had finally really come into herself. And, loathe as Donna was to admit it, finally leave some bad memories behind. And some bad relationships.

Donna looked around her friends 'cheap apartment', which, compared to the mobile home she and Eric had almost moved into, was the Taj Mahal. The walls were covered with 'Saturday Night Live' adverts, once again reminding Donna of how Jackie's career had skyrocketed since she'd left them, and cast posters signed by all her co-stars. A vase of freshly cut flowers were sitting prominently on the kitchen table, thoughtfully arranged and placed, reassuring Donna that Jackie hadn't transformed into a completely other person. Hand drawn pictures bearing handprints and the words "I love you Mommy" decorated the refrigerator. A letter from Michael and Brook Kelso with a picture of their daughter, Jackie's goddaughter was sitting on the coffee table, and Jackie's blazer was slung over an armchair. The room looked incredibly lived in, and a lot like a home, which reminded Donna just how far both Jackie and her life were from their hometown, the place where Donna still lived.

Pulling her gaze away from the overflowing kitchen sink to look back at her companions, to find that Eric had by now plopped himself down on the sofa and was thumbing through "Rolling Stone", and Jackie was franticly trying to tidy up the mess of papers sitting on the kitchen table, trying to make her residence presentable to her guests and quickly shoving the half eaten Hot Pockets into the garbage.

"Sorry about what a mess my place is, but raising a toddler by yourself and working full time doesn't leave much time for housekeeping. However, I could have made the place look at least a bit nicer if you'd been kind enough to give me advance notice that you were coming." Jackie said, staring pointedly at Donna.

Donna shrugged. "We kind of came on whim."

Her friend wasn't convinced. "On a whim you bought plane tickets, packed a weeks worth of clothes, and flew to New York?"

"Also, we didn't want to tell you too soon, because then you'd ask questions, and we wanted to do this in person…"

"Do what in person?" Jackie inquired.

"Well, we're getting married, and, well, I'd like you to be my maid of honor."

"Omigod! Eric proposed… again!" Jackie squealed, jumping up and running over to hug her friend.

"Yes, he did, and did you have to include the again?"

Jackie started laughing, unable to help herself. Then, abruptly, she stopped and looked downcast. "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride," she muttered to herself, "always a bridesmaid…"

And she was always a bridesmaid. In the Forman's vow renewal, for Michael and Brook, even for Fez and Laurie when they tied the knot for real. Which brought to her mind another abject thought. Sadly she informed them "Great. Now everyone from the old gang but me will be married."

Hesitantly Eric countered her. "Not Hyde."

Jackie flushed. "He doesn't count, not after he abandoned me, and with his child. Besides, he used to be married."

Timidly Donna mentioned that, "To be fair, he didn't know about Beth when that happened. Heck, you didn't know about Beth."

Jackie glared at them both. "Steven still doesn't count, and he still used to be married."

Eric grinned. "Well, even if you haven't been married, you have been proposed to a few times."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "By Michael Kelso. And the first time I coerced him into it, then he abandoned me, and the second time he did it because he was feeling desperate and alone. Both really romantic. Besides, I never got a ring, so I was never really engaged."

"There's my material girl." Donna returned, grinning.

"Seriously, Jackie, about, uh, Beth's father…" Eric trailed off.

"What is there to say about Steven Hyde? I though he was my forever, that he was the guy I was going to spend the rest of my life with. But it turned out that to him, all I was was a good time. And as soon as something better came along he left me flat on my ass, with his daughter. And don't say he left me because he didn't know about Beth, cause if he had known that being with me was about to add responsibility, which to him was a dirty word, to his life, he would have high-tailed it out of there even faster."

"Jacks, you know that's not true…"

"DON'T call me Jacks. HE called me that."

"Fine. _Jackie_, you know that's not true." Donna returned, frustrated, "He left his _wife _because he was still in love with you. And he hasn't had a steady relationship since. And let's not forget that the only reason he stayed with Sam in the first place was because he didn't want to be like Bud and Edna, so he'd never abandon his child."

"Yeah?! Well, he abandoned me! So forgive me for not wanting to put my _kid_ through the agony I'd been put through three times over, first when my dad went to _jail_, then when my mom ran away to _Mexico_, then when Steven _abandoned_ me for a _stripper_! Anyways, congratulations on your happy ending, and of course I'll be your maid of honor, Donna, you're my best friend, and unlike some people, would never run away and leave me to pick up the pieces. And then laugh about how he, I mean you, ruined me."

Jackie crumbled to the floor, crying all the way.

"Dang. I thought I was over this. I thought I was past the point where the mere mention of Steven Hyde sent me around the bend."

Donna held her friends hand, and soothed her.


End file.
